There is always a tree

I have kept these words with me for a long time.

There is always tree

Many years ago my grandmother read this story to me and it goes something like this

There was a big tall hunter hunting for a lion in the jungles of Africa. It was a hot, windless day and the spoor was warm. He could sense he was closing on the beast. Suddenly, from the mirage like shimmer the hunter saw this form rise, huge and brown and it was coming for him. He fired and missed. The second shot jammed. He tried to fix it but it failed to work. He flung his gun down. There was not a bush or a tree in sight, just ankle high grass. Nothing. The roar of the beast made the ground tremble just the way they say it does. He could smell its hot, fetid breath on his back, it’s beady eyes shining with rage

Then what happened? I asked, engrossed by the narration.

She calmly said the hunter climbed a tree in the nick of time

What tree, I replied, you just told me there was no tree in sight.

Don’t you see, she said quietly, there has to be a tree, there always has to be a tree, you have to look for it, but there is always a tree

I didn’t understand what this was all about at that time, but it made lot more sense as I grew up.

There always has to be a tree. Except that so many of us don’t look for it. We either get trampled or kicked by the charging lions and we go down for the count, surrendering to what we think is the inevitable. Think about it. Is it really inevitable or did we give in because capitulation was the relatively easier way out, a road filled with little pools of self pity, what can I do, I had to lose out because there was no escape, circumstances were against me, the lion was making for me, my gun wasn’t working, so he won. I hit the dust. But did you look for a tree? There was no tree.

There has to be a tree. There is always a tree. So, think about it the next time you have a charging lion in your life…look for the tree. It’s there.